


Hamlette, Princess of Denmark

by mific



Category: Hamlet - Shakespeare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Angst, Blank Verse, Daddy Issues, F/F, Fanfiction, Fix-It of Sorts, Iambic Pentameter, Mommy Issues, Screenplay/Script Format, cis-female Hamlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-20 09:46:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8244841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mific/pseuds/mific
Summary: Hamlet. With a couple of tiny changes, and considerably fewer deaths.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Small_Hobbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/gifts).



> Written for the 2016 "Stage of Fools" Shakespearean fic exchange, for Small_Hobbit.  
> Warning for cod-Shakespearean blank verse. I've kept the usual capitalization of lines, and have left run-on line-endings without punctuation. This is obviously not fully accurate Elizabethan language and I'm sure there'll be some anachronisms. I don't have all the marvelous vocabulary of the times, but I hope the flavour comes through. 
> 
> So yeah, 5000 words of iambic pentameter. Um, sorry?
> 
> Huge thanks to Persiflager for beta-reading and feedback.

_~~o0o~~_

_[HAMLETTE and HORATIO, in a room at Elsinore castle]_

HAMLETTE                    
I pace like a caged beast, Horatio,  
Hemmed in by birth, and by my very sex.  
Trapped with my faithless mother and the cur  
They call the king, whom I mislike, for he  
Hath wormed his way into my father's role,  
Donned royal robes, taken the queen to bed  
And in all things usurped my poor dead sire.  
That were enough to damn him, but 'tis said  
By the night-watchmen on the battlements,  
That my near two-month buried father walks  
The walls, crying ghostly torments to the night.  
What evil calls him from his grave, and why  
Comes not my father's shade direct to me?

HORATIO                       
Mayhap it is no slight, sweet princess, for  
The sight, surely, is fearsome to behold.  
King Hamlet's ghost may wish to spare you pain.  
—better to recall him as he was in life.  
But I beseech you, do not make so free  
With accusations 'gainst King Claudius.  
It is not safe to speak so, now he rules.

HAMLETTE                    
Do not remind me, I am well aware.  
My tongue is free with you whom I call friend.  
I am assured that you would ne'er betray  
My trust. But I must see this ghost myself  
And hear his words. I'll garb me as a man  
And sever e'en my locks to pass as such.  
Meet me tonight and take me where he walks.

HORATIO  
Princess, this is not wise.

HAMLETTE  
I'm beyond wisdom,  
As are false Gertrude and foul Claudius.  
Nothing in this is wise, and thus I must  
Act without wisdom, and in phantoms trust.

_~~o0o~~_

_[Later, on the battlements]_

HORATIO _[whispering]_  
He hath been seen most often here princess,  
Walking this stretch. 'Tis cold, keep your cloak close.

HAMLETTE  
Aye, the wind cuts like daggers, thus I shall  
Hide in the shadow of my hood, withall.

 _[The ghost appears]_  
Soft, who goes there? Art thou my father's shade?

KING HAMLET'S GHOST  
I am none other. Child, thou shouldst not risk  
Exposure on these heights, although I am  
Most glad to see thee, though my news be grim.

HAMLETTE  
Father, sweet heavens, is it thee in truth?  
I'd disbelieved the soldiers' ale-fuelled talk.  
What are these tidings that disturb thy rest  
And drive thee nightly to this icy haunt?

KING HAMLET'S GHOST  
I seek revenge, for, terrible to hear,  
Thine uncle killed me, so's to seize the crown,  
And take my dear wife, Gertrude, as his own.  
He poured vile poison in my unguarded ear  
As I lay fast asleep, trusting, unknowing.

HAMLETTE  
O such betrayal, such malevolence!  
And now he plays at king, all innocence.

KING HAMLET'S GHOST  
Thou art a female, and my daughter fair,  
So I lay not this burden at thy feet.  
But find a champion, I beg of thee,  
That I may be avenged, and find some peace.

_[The ghost fades away, leaving only the wind]_

HAMLETTE _[agitated]_  
_This_ is his message? That my womanhood  
Makes me unfit to avenge his death 'gainst those  
Who profit from his murder? By God's blood!

HORATIO  
Hamlette, come hither, well you know the shade  
Spoke but the truth—you're verily a maid  
Not trained in arts of war. 'Tis not thy lot  
To set all this to rights. Prithee descend  
From these chill heights and take a warming cup  
Lest from this dread exposure you fall ill.

HAMLETTE _[aside]_  
This rankles, nor do I accept as fact  
That I am branded as too weak to act.  
Poison's a woman's weapon, I have read,  
Thus Claudius hath unmanned himself indeed.

_[they descend to HAMLETTE's chambers]_

_~~o0o~~_

HORATIO  
Here, take this heated wine to warm your bones.

HAMLETTE  
A thousand thanks. Horatio, what of you?  
When do you travel hence from Elsinore?

HORATIO                       
To Wittenberg? In two days. First I must  
Tomorrow seek your uncle's leave to go.  
He'll grant it, never fear. I'm naught to him.

HAMLETTE                    
I do not fear for you, Horatio,  
Being but a student and beneath his gaze.  
Here's to safe passage, for 'tis many leagues;  
You are well rid of us and our intrigues.

 _[They drink the toast]_  
But I am weary and must to my rest,  
If sleep will come, with all that has transpired.  
You've been a staunch companion, given aid  
In strange and fearful times; I'll not forget.  
And so adieu, my friend.  


HORATIO  
Princess, good night.  


_[They clasp hands. HORATIO exits]_

_  
[HAMLETTE goes to her bed, but does not sleep. Finally she rises and paces]_

HAMLETTE  
Day after day, I meet impediment  
Where I am, by my sex, removed from power,  
Judged weak and wanting, 'til I do resent  
Oft being forced to play the tender flower.

Who else but I should claim the right to act,  
Thus to avenge my father's wrongful death?  
I am his child, I wear funereal garb  
To honour him; I have not ceased to mourn.  
My hair is shorn now—that will show my grief,  
And be in faithless Gertrude's side a thorn.

_[sits, head in hands]_

I was King Hamlet's sweetling, so he said,  
Named for him, favoured, always at his side.  
He took me riding, hawking, to the fair,  
Closer we were than many a fabled pair  
Of lovers—and there, mayhap, lies the rub.

We were too close, too narrow a family.  
I have no siblings, Gertrude having birthed  
A stillborn brother to me, then no more.  
She lacked a brace of children to distract  
Her from too-close attention, all on me.  
On me, and on my father, so instead  
Of closer, loving bonds, as one might hope  
In such a family, visited by loss,  
We three were locked into a strange embrace.  
Almost, I felt in contest with the one  
Who gave me birth, duelling in word and deed  
for the king's love, affection and regard.

So the queen, Gertrude—whom I never more  
Shall style as 'mother', after her betrayal  
Of my sweet father with his hateful brother—  
Gertrude, I say, grew jealous and dark of mood,  
Feeling herself most wronged and set apart,  
By my close bond with Hamlet, with the king.  
No, there was no transgression, nothing more  
Than passes between any loving child  
And her dear father. I have heard the talk,  
But it is baseless tattle, slander foul  
Upon the name of a great king. Enough.

_[Rises to pace again]_

Given the intemperate, shocking speed with which  
Gertrude threw off her widow's weeds and took  
Claudius to her bed, could there be worse?  
Might the transgression have occurred between  
Her and my uncle, while my father lived?  
Dear God, it must be so, why else would they  
Flout all propriety in haste to wed?

_[sighs]_

Yet there's no means to prove this sin on them  
And I am weary, with an aching head.  
This is unprofitable. I must to bed.

_[She lies down again and finally sleeps.]_

_~~o0o~~_

_[The next day, a quiet gallery in the castle. HAMLETTE paces restlessly]_

HAMLETTE  
I am still undecided on my course  
Is this my female nature, as they say?  
To vacillate and quail when faced with facts  
That call for action. Do I fear to fail?  
Or have I not the courage of a man  
To face down danger with courageous acts?  
Yet straightforward action never can prevail  
Against the usurper's guards in light of day.  
Is it courageous to plot secretly  
Robed in deceit, in cover of darkest night?  
Assassination feels a deal less clean  
Than piercing Claudius through with his own sword  
In his own throne room, watched by all the court.  
No—this is fantasy, mere idle thought.

Horatio's a close comrade, but e'en he  
Has no real grasp of what it is to be  
A woman in this world so ruled by men.  
I need my bosom friend who knows just how  
Powerless we are, who are so often seen  
As chattels, as possessions to be sold  
For wealth, advancement, or to make an alliance.  
We have so little of our own, save this:  
Our friendship, and perhaps the subtle power  
Of being overlooked. I can but hope  
To use that to advantage in my cause.  
I must feign meekness, painting o'er my rage  
With skin-deep courtesy as I make my plans.  
For now, I go to seek Ophelia.

 _[Before she can leave, CLAUDIUS and GERTRUDE enter_ _]_

HAMLETTE _[aside]_  
Ill met indeed, encountering by chance  
My faithless parent and my father's bane.  
If I hold still they may not see me—

GERTRUDE  
Hamlette?  
Why dost thou in the shadows palely dwell?  
Thou'rt garbed in hose, thy head most oddly shorn.  
'Tis unbecoming. Art thou fully well?

HAMLETTE  
Well? There's a fair conceit. I am not whole,  
Having lately lost my father. Nor have I cheer  
Since he's but two months buried. Do I bleed?  
Not where 'tis visible to the eye, but aye,  
I do, unlike some I could name who _should_  
Bleed, but, do not. Still, all things come to rights,  
Or so I'm told.

CLAUDIUS  
Are your wits addled, Hamlette,  
That you speak so to your most loving mother?  
There is no sense in what you say.

HAMLETTE  
O, sir,  
I beg to disagree. 'Tis naught _but_ sense  
from start to end. For where the nonsense lives  
Is in th' beholder's eye, the listener's ear.  
Indeed I have been musing much on ears  
Of late. I have been troubled by the ease  
with which these tender channels to the brain  
May be confused or poisoned, or brought low,  
By what may enter there.

CLAUDIUS  
What mean you, girl?  
Art crazed, with all this witless talk of ears?

HAMLETTE  
Why I meant naught at all, and yet, as king—  
For so I grant you're styled—you must have some  
Concerns about your subjects' ears and what  
There enters. Words can be powerful poison.

CLAUDIUS  
Have a care, Hamlette—

GERTRUDE _[taking HAMLETTE'S arm]_  
Aye, my child, take care.  
Thou mayst a princess be, and of our blood,  
but thou art not above reproach. Here stands  
Thy king and lord, who has in generous measure  
Shouldered a parent's duties, to console  
Thee in thy time of need, that the sharp pain  
Of loss be blunted. Be thou not ungrateful.

HAMLETTE _[extricates herself from GERTRUDE's grasp]_  
Madam, I am sore chastened by your words.  
You are indeed a model of the power  
Of consolation to o'erthrow all else.  
I bow to your example.

CLAUDIUS  
Curb your tongue.  
Whither do you go, Hamlette, in such a state?

HAMLETTE  
Why, everywhere and nowhere, for my steps  
Are like as wandering and as lacking sense  
As is my tongue.

_[POLONIUS enters]_

POLONIUS  
Well met, my liege, my lady.

 _[aside to CLAUDIUS and GERTRUDE]_  
And Princess Hamlette, though most sadly altered.  
Is she gone mad with grief to dress in hose  
And cut her tresses? 'Tis not fitting garb  
For one of elevated station, nor for one  
Of the fair sex, humankind's gentler half.

 _[turning to HAMLETTE]_  
Princess, I beg you, spend some little time  
With mine own daughter, sweet Ophelia.  
She is most skilled in female grace and arts  
And would delight in offering you advice  
And gentle company to soothe your heart.

HAMLETTE  
Sir, by sheer chance your counsel's to th' point.  
I'll take it and begone, farewell to you.  
And to the rest, good riddance.

_[Exits]_

GERTRUDE _[staring after her, distressed]_  
She is not well.

POLONIUS  
Has she a fever? Is't that time of month  
When females regularly are deranged  
By humours from the wandering womb that–

CLAUDIUS  
Cease!  
I pray you, don't anatomise away  
The insolence of youth in sullen mood.  
In truth she is too much alone and has  
Far too much time to brood. She's near of age  
And needs a husband.

POLONIUS  
O, my very thoughts!

GERTRUDE  
Is it so, husband? She is yet so young  
And passing troubled. Goes the war so well  
That an alliance can be safely made?

CLAUDIUS  
Mayhap, but if she has to face discord  
In dealings 'twixt our lands, it will at least  
Give her real strife to fret o'er, rather than  
These foolish fancies, born of too much thought.

POLONIUS  
I also seek to make a likely match  
For my Ophelia, and methinks I have  
Found just the man. Sire, will you walk with me,  
That I may lay before you all my plans  
for this, and seek your blessing?

CLAUDIUS  
Aye, then come.

 _[Exeunt]_

_~~o0o~~_

_[OPHELIA's chamber, elsewhere in the castle. HAMLETTE enters. They embrace and kiss]_

HAMLETTE  
How dost my sweet Ophelia? I am sent  
By thine own father.

OPHELIA  
What? Hast heard the news?  
Thou lookst so pale, and with thy poor shorn head  
And mannish garb, too like the enemy.

HAMLETTE  
Have a care, dear one, if thy father hears  
Thee denigrate the sex we're taught to serve,  
He will shower thee with frantic pedantries  
And sermons, to rein in thy wilfulness.

OPHELIA  
Aye, for my will is set on thee, my sweet.  
But we are safe from fathers, and indeed  
From brothers, for Laertes is as blind.  
They cannot comprehend that women might  
Need no man to be happy, nor have need  
Of their most prized, fleshy appendages.

HAMLETTE _[laughs, holding her close]_  
Thou art most kind, to cheer my weary soul.  
Yet 'tis a lost cause, for I am indeed  
Knocked out of true by this ill-fated news.

OPHELIA  
What then is this? My foolish father's plans?

HAMLETTE  
Plans? No, my news is of a harsher stamp,  
Lodged like an arrow in my very breast.  
Even thy dear face cannot long prevail  
To lift my spirits.

OPHELIA _[pulling back to gaze on HAMLETTE]  
_ What is this dark news,  
That has cast thee into such disarray?

HAMLETTE  
I am garbed thus my love, and with shorn hair  
So's to conceal myself and learn the truth.  
My father did not die a natural death.  
His ghost was seen by soldiers standing watch,  
Upon the ramparts in the dark of night.  
_[gripping her arms]_  
Ophelia, I have seen this spirit myself.  
He calls for vengeance, tells a fearsome tale  
How he was poisoned, so's to steal the crown.

OPHELIA _[shocked]_  
By whom?

HAMLETTE _[turning away angrily]  
_ Thou _knowest_ by whom. By his foul brother.  
Claudius the usurper, whom the fickle queen  
Has welcomed freely to her incestuous bed.  
I cannot eat, nor rest, nor think of aught  
Save these most horrid deeds. Ophelia,  
I saw his ghost—my sainted father's shade!

OPHELIA  
What canst thou do? Hamlette, thou hast no sword  
To do this spirit's bidding 'gainst the King.  
Claudius is closely guarded, and if this  
be true—that he knows from his own dark deeds  
How fragile is the safety of a crown—  
Then, all is clear. Sweet one, he fears just this:  
That someone will indeed act as the ghost  
Exhorts, and extract justice for his crime.

HAMLETTE  
Yet act I must, surely! This cannot stand.  
I will be crazed with hatred, knowing what  
Claudius has wrought. Or if I drift, becalmed  
In fear and indecision, I will turn  
That bitter hatred inwards, on myself.  
That way lies madness.

OPHELIA _[taking HAMLETTE's hands]  
_ I will not allow it.  
Not that thou act intemperately and risk  
Imprisonment—or worse, death on the spears  
Of the King's guard. Nor that thou waste away  
In shame and torment, holding all within.

HAMLETTE  
Dearest Ophelia, thou'rt the one bright thing  
In this foul stew. Would that thy tender heart  
Could mend my ills. Could I not come to thee  
For consolation, I'd be lost indeed.

OPHELIA _[distressed]_  
And so we come to my unhappy news.  
I shrink to tell thee, in this darkest hour.

HAMLETTE  
What is it? What new burden must we bear?

OPHELIA  
Polonius, my parent—who by all  
Established custom of our law and land  
Decides my fate, whether I will or no—  
He hath sold me away, as is his right,  
For women have no sway over such things.  
Not with a father like Polonius,  
Self-righteous, deaf, impervious to my pleas.  
He's given me away, promised my hand  
In marriage, to a lordling of great wealth,  
Whose lands lie many long leagues west of here.

HAMLETTE _[angry]_  
Given away? To whom?

OPHELIA  
To Osric. _Osric!_

HAMLETTE  
_Osric?_   God's bones, he is no man at all,  
Much less a husband. He is such a fool  
Methinks he could not find thy maidenhead  
With both hands and a pack of coursing hounds,  
E'en were it still intact. He's a buffoon  
Piss-full of wind and vapid courtesies  
—And the usurper's tool, as is thy sire.

OPHELIA _[covering her face]_  
Give o'er! Thou tellst me naught I did not know.  
   
HAMLETTE  
'Tis true, but hear me now for we cannot  
Let these false fathers falsely shape our ends.  
Polonius is your blood, but by these acts  
He shows that his own pride and wish to please  
Claudius the traitor override what should  
by rights be fatherly concern for thee.  
Claudius is truly false in every sense—  
False husband, falsely crowned, and false to me,  
Who best deserves a daughter's gentle care.  
Instead he hath, for reasons politic,  
Betrothed me to fierce Norway, Fortinbras,  
With whom we are at war—only that fact  
Has stopped me being sold summarily,  
Wrapped in a treaty, with a golden dower.

OPHELIA  
What can we do? Women are oft used thus.  
Our fates and partners are not ours to choose.

HAMLETTE  
Yet we _can_ act, and must, for I will not  
Let Osric place even one hand on thee—  
I'll amputate th' offending member first.

OPHELIA  
Strong words, my love, but how shall we make good  
Our closeness, once these marriages unfold.  
I shall be 'prisoned up in Osric's tower,  
And thou in Norway, once the conflict's o'er.

HAMLETTE _[taking her hands again]_  
Ophelia, get thee to a nunnery.  
Or rather, come with me, and take the veil.  
Where else do women rule? Where else can we  
Hold close and steadfast, but behind those walls  
Inviolate, where men cannot intrude,  
Where fathers and court plots carry no sway?  
In sheltering cloisters shall we find some ease,  
Living in quiet community and peace  
—And if a portion of our worship stray  
From the Almighty to each other, well,  
Methinks that He hath overmuch of praise  
And will not grudge us this, as long as we  
Follow the forms of service, and of prayer.

OPHELIA  
Thinkst thou that any abbess has the strength  
To keep us safe from wrathful kings and lords?  
Polonius will cry out, and Claudius  
Will rage and storm if thou lay waste his plans  
For an alliance to cement the peace  
With Norway.

HAMLETTE  
Aye, just so, were he alive.

OPHELIA _[shocked]_  
Hamlette, what meanst thou?

HAMLETTE  
Thou knowest very well.  
I cannot quit this place while Claudius  
Feasts at my father's board and beds his widow,  
Revelling all unrepentant in his crimes.  
If I must beg to have my sins absolved,  
And spend long hours upon my knees in prayer,  
Then, by what's holy, I'll have done _real_ acts  
For which to ask forgiveness.  
_[reassuringly]_  Nay, fear not.  
Only in my inner prayers, twixt me and God.  
I'm not so foolish as to trust some priest,  
Some _man_ , with dangerous truths like these.

OPHELIA  
Hamlette, it is too perilous! Thou cannot  
Hope to dispatch the king in all his power.

HAMLETTE  
And yet _he_ did just that. He killed my sire.  
Poured poison in his own dear brother's ear  
As he slept, unsuspecting.

OPHELIA  
O, most vile!  
But how comest thou by details so exact?

HAMLETTE  
So the ghost claims—my murdered father's shade.  
I am full certain that the poison flask  
Which monstrous Claudius used in his foul crime  
Must be hid cunningly within his rooms.  
I mean to find it, and to lace his wine.

OPHELIA  
Thou cannot be so certain he has kept  
Any of the fatal substance. Surely he  
Would seek in haste to rid himself of it,  
And thus deny all blame should fingers point  
—As they must surely do, if several guards  
Have seen this ghost who walks.

HAMLETTE  
Thy point's well taken.  
And by the morrow, Claudius too must hear  
About the spirit, from his many spies.  
Thus must I act tonight, while he reclines  
All unawares, in Gertrude's perfumed sty.  
Aye, the front entrance to his rooms will be  
Guarded, but I'm the daughter of a king.  
I have, in happier days, crept many a time,  
as a small child to join my parents there.  
None know this castle half so well as I,  
Its hidden doors and secret passages.  
I am best fitted to perform this deed.

OPHELIA  
Then what befalls? Suspicion will be rife  
When Claudius is discovered cold and dead,  
Once he has drunk the wine. Thoult not escape  
Scrutiny, Hamlette, for all know there is  
Scant love lost 'tween thyself and Claudius.

HAMLETTE  
True, yet two things protect me, even so.  
I am a female, and am near a child,  
Having not quite reached my majority.  
Those levelling blame will not think a mere maid  
Could kill a king. Then, for the second fact,  
We will not tarry here to be accused.  
I'll 'list Horatio's aid and in the dawn  
We'll first take ship then ride to Wittenberg,  
Where he'll resume his studies, while we two  
Make haste to Lehnin Abbey, close nearby  
There to entreat th' abbess to take us in.

OPHELIA  
With the Cistercians? Jesu, we'll be worked  
To the bone day and night in field and farm.

HAMLETTE  
Yet we'll be free of men, under the sky.  
They have no vow of silence, so we'll find  
Places to walk, and tryst, and speak our hearts.

OPHELIA  
Love makes men mad, and women too, it seems,  
For I must follow thee, and thy wild dreams.

HAMLETTE _[teasingly]_  
All know Cistercians are renown for bread  
And brewing arts—we shall at least be fed.  
And having learned these skills, if all else fails  
We'll flee the walls and, feigning sisterhood,  
Become purveyors of fine foods and ales.

OPHELIA _[laughs, a little desperately]_  
Thou hast it all laid out, this much is plain,  
Yet first thou must risk all, and must commit  
Murder—aping thine uncle's awful sin.  
Hamlette, do not imperil thy immortal soul  
On a mere ghost's behest—for all thou knowest  
T'was but a spirit of darkness, sent from Hell  
With evil words, to drag thee down as well.

Wilt thou not lie with me tonight instead,  
Take pleasure while we can in a soft bed?  
Well do I know a nunnery pallet will be  
Narrow and hard, and separate from thee.  
So leave thy vengeance up to God, and come  
Love me this final time, before we flee.

HAMLETTE _[staring at OPHELIA]_  
I have sworn to the old king's shade I shall  
End the usurper's reign and bring him low.  
T'would a sore failure be should I allow  
Claudius the traitor live, despite my vow.  
I'll not renounce this, and I beg of thee:  
By all our love, do not ask this of me.

OPHELIA _[turns away in despair]  
_ 'Tis clear thou art determined, set in stone.  
Then go, and leave me to my fate alone.

HAMLETTE  
I shall return, I promise, but I must  
Achieve this—in the name of all that's just.

_[OPHELIA remains turned away and does not answer.  
HAMLETTE bows her head and leaves]  _

_~~o0o~~_  

_[Pacing in a gallery some distance from OPHELIA's chamber]_

HAMLETTE _[angrily]_  
In no thing am I truly free to act,  
I am constrained at every compass-point.  
By this foul treachery that's come to light,  
By mine own murdered father's vengeful charge,  
Even by Ophelia's love and wish to shield  
Me from this plight. All things are out of joint.  
I jerk this way and that, as though I were  
A puppet at the puppet-master's whim.  
Why can I not master my own affairs?  
Be mistress of mine own fate? . . . O give o'er.  
I weary e'en myself with this pretence,  
Railing against my tedious impotence.

Well, if I must be forced to act by others  
I shall ensure vile Claudius profits not  
From villainy. He shall not wallow in  
Ill-gotten gains of royal crown and wife,  
He is a murderer and forfeit his life  
And I'm his executioner: thus, I sin.

_[HAMLETTE finds a concealed door behind a hanging and vanishes into the wall]_

_~~o0o~~_

_[Claudius's chambers. Empty, until HAMLETTE enters from behind another hanging]_

HAMLETTE _  
_ 'Tis as I thought, Claudius is with the queen  
And, having secretly arrived herein  
I go unwatched, the guards being all without.  
I shall not be disturbed in my designs.

_[turns, gazing about her]_

But where to search, to find the lethal vial?  
Where would he hide it, to ensure that ne'er  
Would it be found, and thus expose him to  
All as a murderer—yet, it must be here.  
Think, Hamlette, think, for thou knewest these rooms well  
In thy dear father's reign. Where might there be  
A cache known to no other, to conceal  
Secrets or treasures, even from the queen?

There's a faint memory from long years ago,  
When I was very young, and curled asleep  
—or so my father thought—here, in his bed.  
On this rough wall, he pressed a stone like so,  
And thus revealed a hidden cavity.

_[HAMLETTE presses a stone in the wall. Nothing happens. She presses others]_

Well, I shall try them all, for nowhere else  
Would be as safe from chance discovery  
By servants, or by Gertrude. As I am press'd  
Upon to stay or act, to stand or yield,  
So shall I press my purpose here until  
I find success—

_[There is a grinding noise and a stone retreats into the wall, leaving a dark space]_

Ha! Thus it is revealed.

_[HAMLETTE reaches in and removes a stoppered glass vial, raising it for inspection]_

Such a small thing, verily, to kill a king.  
God save me, 'tis all fact, and not the mere  
Phantoms of grief, unbalancing my mind  
And causing me to see nefarious acts  
On ev'ry side. My father's ghost misled  
Me not in this; He spoke th' unvarnished truth.

_[HAMLETTE moves to a sideboard holding a flask of wine and a goblet]_

Now comes the crux indeed when I must screw  
My courage to the sticking point and do  
The deed. Commit a mortal sin and so  
Consign my soul to Hell. O, some would say  
That bedding sweet Ophelia is as grave  
A wickedness, yet that's a lie, I know.  
Nor is there aught in Scripture to forbid  
Our love, no matter what men say . . . Aye, _men!_

 _[She turns away]  
_ I have for too long been controll'd by men  
And this entreating ghost, although once loved,  
Is yet again seeking to work through me.  
Shall I commit myself forever more  
To fire and torment? No, it shall not be.  
I'm weary past all telling of being told  
What I must do and must not. It grows old.

_[HAMLETTE dashes the vial down. It shatters on the flagstones]_

So do I take my destiny back into  
Mine own hands. Let this lie for Claudius  
To see, and shrink, and know himself exposed.  
He'll poison no-one else with it thus disposed.

Now I must to Ophelia, whose prayers  
Are answered, for I have witheld my hand  
From murder, and thus placed us at great risk,  
Sealing our fates, for I cannot remain  
In Elsinore, having with this act made plain  
That Claudius's deeds are known. We'll have tonight  
And then with good Horatio's aid escape  
To Saxony and the cloister, at first light.

 _[HAMLETTE slips back behind the hanging and exits._

_~~o0o~~_

_[Later, in OPHELIA's chamber]_

HAMLETTE  _[waking OPHELIA]_  
Dear one, I am returned. I could not do't  
My soul is safe—well, as it ever was,  
So surely still at risk were't not for thy  
Virtuous interventions. Come, let's kiss.

OPHELIA _[tearfully]  
_ Hamlette? 'Tis thee? I'd given up all hope.  
But is it true? Thou didst not kill thine uncle?  
O happy news, that thou canst tell me this.

HAMLETTE  _[taking OPHELIA's face in her hands]_  
Thou hadst the right of it, I should have known  
To heed thee, my soul's lodestone, not my fears  
Of failure—I'm no judge and now 'tis clear:  
These evildoers are best left to fate.  
Yet Claudius knows, so we must flee at dawn;  
This night is all we have. The hour is late,  
Thou art most lovely, so come, dry thy tears,  
And let me make the most of this last chance  
To hold thee close, before we must begone.

_[They kiss, then sink down on the bed. Curtains close]_

_~~o0o~~_

_[Epilogue—Lehnin Abbey, near Wittenberg]_

HORATIO  
Hamlette! Princess, 'tis passing strange to see  
You robed in the Cistercians' magpie dress.  
No matter, it is good to know you're safe  
Even walled-up and watched by an abbess.

HAMLETTE  
Well met, Horatio! Aye, we are cagèd birds  
With parti-coloured plumage, like the rest  
Of Lehnin's sisterhood. The work is hard  
Yet cleaner than my life in Elsinore.  
I don't regret the change, nor do I think  
Ophelia repines. But you will have  
News from Laertes who has visited.

HORATIO  
Indeed, seeking to calm her father's breast;  
Polonius was sore wroth, to find her fled.

HAMLETTE  
And what of Claudius, did he rail and rage?

HORATIO  
Aye, and was full of threats t'invade Saxony  
And wrest you back, but then Norway attacked,  
So north he rode to war with Fortinbras.  
There on the battlefield he met his end,  
Thus Fortinbras rules in Elsinore.

HAMLETTE  
Is't so?  
Ophelia spoke the truth in counselling me  
To let fate take its course. Gertrude still lives?

HORATIO  
Aye, she has taken the veil, a gentler order.  
In Jutland, not long past. She sent no word.

HAMLETTE  
Nor do I want it. We are full divorced  
From our past lives, or at least from our parents.  
Call us unnatural, but we realised  
When something festers, it must be excised.  
Here, we tend fields, bake bread, study and pray,  
And take some comfort in the company  
Of sisters. You will think it a half life,  
But in a world marching to martial drums  
With all the violence and despair that comes  
From male ascendancy, being mured-up here  
In quiet contemplation is at least  
A partial answer.

HORATIO  
Aye, I see the truth  
In what you say, and wish you both much peace.  
Give fair Ophelia all my kindest thoughts.  
Now I must take my leave of you again,  
Return to Wittenberg and another year  
Of studies. So farewell.

HAMLETTE  
Farewell, my friend,  
And do not think us sad being thus confined.  
We are not discontent within these walls,  
For we have one another, which means all.

 

_~~o0o~~_

 

                              The end

 

 


End file.
